Surprise! Robert Gibbs Stepping Down As WH Press Secretary to Help with Obama’s Reelection Campaign, More Chicago Politics if William Daley Takes Over (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on January 5, 2011
White House Press Sec. Robert Gibbs is leaving his position next month to help organize Obama's reelection campaign
Guess Robert Gibbs’ stepping down as White House press secretary makes Barack Obama’s decision to run for reelection (*gasp!*) official. Last week, Gibbs was being coy in interviews, but made references that Obama’s bid was unofficial. No longer.
Surprise, surprise!
Gibbs will be joining exiting advisor David Axelrod in assisting with Obama’s attempt at a second presidential term. Gibbs will stick it out as prez press sec until next month. Rumors are also still circulating about former Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico taking over when Hillary Clinton steps down as Secretary of State to “spend more time with her family” while many believe she will run again for president in 2012 — although, there’s been a lot of pooh-poohing on that one (we’ll see).
More rumors that William M. Daley, Chicago mayor Richard Daley’s brother, is being considered by Obama for the White House press secretary position or as Chief of Staff. Rahm Emanuel left Obama back in September in order to run in Chicago’s upcoming mayoral election.
Obama’s hand-picked economic team has scurried away for various — sometimes flimsy — reasons over the past few months. The cast of Team Obama characters have changed quite a bit in the past 24 months since January 20, 2009.
Reported by NY Times, Gibbs to Leave as White House Press Secretary:
Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary and close confidante to President Obama, said Wednesday that he will step down and become an outside political adviser to the president and his re-election campaign.
Mr. Gibbs said that he intends to leave the podium in early February. His successor has not yet been decided, he said, but will likely be announced within the next two weeks.
President Obama, who is in the midst of making final decisions on the first major reorganization of his administration, said in a brief telephone interview on Wednesday that Mr. Gibbs would remain a close adviser and “will continue to shape the dialogue politically for many years to come.”
“We’ve been on this ride together since I won my Senate primary in 2004,” Mr. Obama said. “He’s had a six-year stretch now where basically he’s been going 24/7 with relatively modest pay. I think it’s natural for someone like Robert to want to step back for a second to reflect, retool and that as a consequence brings about both challenges and opportunities for the White House.”
The departure of Mr. Gibbs is part of a series of moves inside the West Wing as the president prepares for a new phase of his administration. The internal shuffling also could bring a new White House chief of staff, a decision the president is expected to make by week’s end, with an announcement as early as next week.
Mr. Obama has narrowed his choice for chief of staff to Pete Rouse, who is serving in the post on an interim basis, or William Daley, a former Commerce Secretary and the brother of Chicago’s mayor, Richard Daley. Mr. Daley has signaled to aides that he will accept the position if it is offered by the president, according to an official familiar with the talks. No other candidates are in line for the job.
Memory Lane… Press Secretary Gibbs avoids Jake Tapper’s questions about the administration’s transparency in February 2009:
From Associated Press, Gibbs says he’s leaving White House:
WASHINGTON (AP) — White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says he is resigning his job as the president’s chief spokesman.
Gibbs is leaving to become an outside political adviser to Obama and to give speeches in the private sector.
The change is to take effect in early February. No replacement has been immediately named.
The move comes as Obama ushers in a broad shake up of his senior leadership, heading toward his own likely re-election bid in 2012.
From Jim Hanson at Big Government, Gibbs Hits the Bricks, Uncle Jimbo for Press Secretary:
Well it seems that the President’s designated liar is about to exit the revolving door and go rake in some satchels of cash as a private, rather than public, political tool. Uh buh bye Gibby, it will be tough to replace your smug, smirking, professionally, un-informed visage, but I have a suggestion. I have been campaigning for the job of Press Secretary since watching the jackals of the White House Press Corps batting the feckless Scott McClellan around like a cat toy. So the time is now, and the tool is me. Here is the cunning plan. I have prepared 3 audition Press Briefs and with some grass roots support I could be beating the jackals like wet dogs in a dry house.
Excellent, must-read post this morning at The Daily Caller… TheDC Morning: Robert Gibbs crows about power of big government, gets facts completely wrong.
From The Guardian, Out goes Gibbs, in comes Daley (maybe):
Some people seem to have strong feelings about Robert Gibbs. I can’t say that I do. When the administration was new, I watched the daily briefings, which I don’t any longer. I gather some of the journalists based there found him brusque, but journalists based there find virtually every White House press secretary brusque. Basically thought it was a good idea for a black president to have a white guy from Alabama be his public face.
So now that he’s leaving, is it important? Well, yes, it is. Most people don’t understand how demanding that job is, and the authority that comes with it. It’s not exactly a policy-making position, but it is high inner circle; Gibbs probably has had as much face time with the president as just about anyone. So he’s been giving advice as well as taking orders. The person with that job has a lot of inside sway.
Even so, that person is mostly judged on how he or she performs on television on a daily basis. Assessed as a TV character, Gibbs is a little flat and unmemorable. I don’t mean to sound harsh. I’m just saying, imagine him as a movie character, an actor auditioning for that role. Would you cast him? Probably not. He doesn’t have much TV charisma. Ain’t his fault. Just the way it is. So a more charismatic person might do the job a little better.
I find the Bill Daley chatter more confounding. Really? To hire a new chief of staff in a “big shake-up” they have to stick with Chicago? That’s weird. I don’t care about the inevitable right-wing “Chicago thug politics” meme, which is the usual silliness, but I do think it sends a signal that they’re an insecure bunch and need an unusually high comfort level with new people. Tom Daschle, the other person evidently in the running, would seem to me to be better, if only because of his many personal relationships on the Hill.
But now, it’s not only about the Hill. Since the GOP will now be running the House, the administration isn’t going to get much (if any) positive progressive legislation passed. That means they’ll need to try to do what they can administratively, which would seem to me to mean that they need to highlight the work of executive agencies and cabinet members.
Background info from Michelle Malkin, Chicago on the Potomac:
No matter how you rearrange President Obama’s inner circle, it still looks, smells and tastes like a rotten Chicago deep-dish pizza.
Ready for the latest topping on this moldy old pie? It’s a possible chief of staff slot for Wall Street banker/lawyer/wheeler-dealer William Daley, brother of outgoing Chicago mayor/machine politics mastermind Richard M. Daley (also the former boss of White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and first lady Michelle Obama), whose retirement paved the way for former Obama chief of staff and Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel. Phew.
The White House is reportedly looking to manufacture a “pro-business” aura with Bill Daley, who holds a “corporate responsibility” executive office at J.P. Morgan and once headed the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — the latter, a left-wing hate object and Obama punching bag leading up to the midterms.
But the Beltway-based Chamber of Commerce is too often a fair-weather statist lobbying organization. It supported the TARP all-purpose bailout, the auto bailout and the bottomless, pork-filled stimulus package, all of which have forcibly redistributed money from taxpayers and small businesses to politically connected special interests (including Daley’s J.P. Morgan, which was most recently swept up in a massive pay-to-play bond scheme in Alabama).
Daley has about as much real experience creating jobs as Da Boss now sitting at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave — which is to say, less than a thimble full. (It’s a New Year. I’m being generous.) In 2009, the head of Chicago’s sanitation department implicated Daley in a hiring corruption scheme tied to his brother’s mayoral administration. The official was convicted; Daley shrugged off the federal probe. “Even if it happened — and I’m not saying it did — things were different. There was nothing illegal about that stuff.”
Posted by ABC’s Jake Tapper on his blog yesterday before the official-Gibbs-leaving announcement was made… If Gibbs Leaves, President Obama’s Three Amigos Will Have All Said Adios:
While no decision has been made yet, top Democrats say it seems likely that press secretary Robert Gibbs will be departing the White House fairly soon.
President Obama is, according to sources, happy with Gibbs’ work as press secretary. But Gibbs was eager to leave the podium and assume a more “senior counselor” role, a la David Axelrod, who is leaving to depart for Chicago, in part to help with the president’s 2012 reelection campaign.
The issue, sources say: President Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, David Plouffe, is coming to the White House, making it unclear that there is enough room for another “senior counselor” type with a defined and effective portfolio. Plouffe will run messaging and politics, in addition to other duties.
Democrats say Gibbs is exploring the possibility of serving as an outside adviser for the White House, DNC and the reelection campaign. That might allow Gibbs the opportunity to create a defined and effective role, albeit one outside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Throughout 2009 and 2010, the president’s three closest advisers were Axelrod, Gibbs and then-chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. This would mean that Obama will not have any of those three men inside the White House any longer. Though Plouffe is a close adviser and member of the inner circle — as is White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett — those three departures will necessitate a serious readjustment by the president.
Next video: Aired earlier this week, Roland Martin joins John King on JKUSA with Rich Galen and Cornell Belcher to discuss the possibility of White House Press Secretary Gibbs being replaced or moving on to other opportunities.
CNN: White House Shake-Up: Is Robert Gibbs In Or Out?
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[...] Perhaps Gibbs’ greatest contribution to the Obama presidency was his ability to avoid answering questions, as Vicki McClure Davidson points out. [...]
Ahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaa !
Did someone pull his hand out of the sock puppet’s butt ?
Maybe Barry needs more “up front” power, and possibly, articulation.
This tells me that Barry still has aspirations of running in 2012.
The next 2 years will be a target rich environment, to quote a line from “Top Gun”.
Now the press conferences will be more non-partisan, right ? heh.
Can’t wait to see who the next enabler for Pres Obummer will be. Gibbs sure earned his salary dodging press questions. Wonder if Barry realizes how much deflecting Gibbs did for him?